The Middle East Conflict and Challenges to European Security

His Excellency Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland and 2008 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, will discuss The Middle East Conflict and Challenges to European Security.

After a distinguished career with the United Nations and the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Martti Ahtisaari was elected President of the Republic of Finland in 1994. He held the position until the end of February 2000. In December 2008 Mr. Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Upon leaving office as President of the Republic of Finland, Mr. Ahtisaari has taken several international tasks to continue his career in international peace-mediation and conflict resolution. After leaving the office of the President, Martti Ahtisaari founded Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a Non-Governmental Organisation to continue his legacy in helping the international community to do better when it comes to preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and post-conflict statebuilding. Today President Ahtisaari acts as the Chairman of the Board of CMI.

Mr. Ahtisaari's post-presidential activities have included facilitating the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, chairing an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq and appointments as the UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for Central Asia. Between November 2005 and February 2008, Mr. Ahtisaari acted as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo.

President Ahtisaari is active in numerous non-governmental and non-profit organisations. As his main activities he is the Co-Chair in European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Chairman of the Independent Commission on Turkey, the Director-At-Large of the ImagineNations Group, member of the Silatech Board of Trustees, member of the Elders, and member of the Prize Committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

Martti Ahtisaari is married to Mrs. Eeva Ahtisaari and they have a son.

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